As far as the problems of maintaining a faithful Christian witness in the world are concerned, there is probably little under the sun that is new. Although our world is a different one to that in which the Puritans lived and worked, they have much to teach us and to convey to us in the whole area of living the Christian life. They were among the most practical of men, who were concerned for the truth of the Word of God in their day and generation, and who wished to live that Word out in daily life to the glory of God and for the good of God's cause.

Puritanism was really the child of the Word of God, growing out of Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament of 1526. The appearance of the Bible led to a desire among God-fearing saints to reform the Church of England, and the Puritans embraced the vision of a fully reformed church. Non-conformist in their attitude, they had what someone has called a "religiously motivated discontent", and they sought to stir up the church to the great doctrines of the faith.

The Relevance of the Puritans⤒🔗

There are three reasons why the Puritans are important for us in our discussion of the Sabbath.

The first is that we can identify with them; their battle is our battle. We who love the Bible as they did would wish to see it applied in every area of life, and would wish to see a Reformed church in a Reformed commonwealth, with both church and state governed by the pre­cepts of the Word of God. Prof. J.I. Packer has reminded us that "The Puritans lost, more or less, every public battle that they fought". Yet they won important moral victories by bringing the principles of the Bible to the attention of men. The battle for the Sabbath is only one front on which the Church in Scot­land is engaged at the present time. As on many other fronts, we seem to be losing this one also. For that reason, the Puritans can breathe life and encourage­ment into our endeavours.

Secondly, the confessional position of the Free Church of Scotland regarding the Lord's Day is firmly rooted in Puritan theology and doctrine. Chapter 21.7-8 of the Westminster Confession was the result of the deliberations of the Westmin­ster Assembly which would never have come about had it not been for the faithful and persistent work of the Puritans. The movement we call Puritanism represents the root of our theological heritage.

Thirdly, in the Puritan tradition, every­thing doctrinal is reducible to practice. Jonathan Edwards reminds us in Religious Affections that "True grace is not an inactive thing", and John Owen, in his preface to his Treatise on the Sabbath reminds us that the two great concerns of religion are "the profession of its truth and the practice or exercise of its power". Matthew Henry lays it down as a rule for his exposition of the Scripture that we must enquire "not only 'What is this?' but 'What is this to us?' 'What use may we make of it?'" The Puritans were not dry theoreti­cians, but they embraced an all-encompassing moral and spiritual vision, in which doctrine was reducible to practice and practice was firmly rooted in doctrine. That is, after all, the essence of Pauline New Testament Christianity.

The Background←⤒🔗

What was the Sabbath like in seventeenth-century England? There is a tendency for us to imagine that everything was better in the past, and that Sabbath desecration is an invention of the modern world. Not so. Thomas Watson, in his work on the commandments, sets the scene for us:

The Sabbath-day in England lies bleeding; and oh! that our Parliament would pour some balm into the wounds which it has received! How is this day profaned, by sitting idle at home, by selling meat, by vain discourse, by sinful visits, by walking in the fields and by sports! ... When one of Darius' eunuchs saw Alexander setting his feet on a rich table of Darius's, he wept. Alexander asked him why he wept? He said it was to see the table which his master so highly esteemed made a footstool. So may we weep to see the Sabbath-day, which God highly esteems ... made a footstool, and trampled upon by the feet of sinners.

Similarly, John Owen wrote his treatise on the Sabbath in seeking to preserve this precious fence, which the goodness of God has drawn around the vineyard of his church, and which he found assailed on the one hand by fanatics, who denounced it as a mere ceremonial and carnal observance, and by the more numerous and noisy disciples of the 'Book of Sports' who hated it for its spirituality.

As in our day, so in the Puritan age, God's holy day was under attack both within and outwith the church. The world hates the Sabbath because it is a weekly reminder of the God it chooses to ignore. But the church can sell away its Sabbath too, in the name of Christian liberty and freedom of conscience. The Puritan teaching on the Sabbath contains much to instruct us, in terms of doctrine, description and directive.

Puritan Doctrine←⤒🔗

The Puritans were thorough readers and searchers of the Word of God. Their doctrine of the Sabbath was built on a multiple basis, beginning with God's rest at creation, including the directive for gathering manna, the letter of the fourth commandment, the practice of Christ and the example of the early church.

But it was in their exegesis of the fourth commandment that the Puri­tans advanced the Sabbath doctrine. Calvin and other Reformers had argued that the Sabbath was a Jewish sign, and foreshadowed a provision to come. In this sense, the Sabbath is abrogated, and the Lord's Day has taken its place. There is no Sabbath now; Calvin argues that the fourth commandment teaches a principle of rest and worship but not an observa­tion of the Sabbath.

The Puritans argued that there is more to it than this. Their position generally was that the commandment teaches the principle that one day in seven is to be given to God, without in fact naming the day of the week. It says "Remember the sabbath day..." not "Remember the seventh day of the week..." This is what distin­guishes the ceremonial from the moral - the commandment reminded them that by ceremony (i.e. in regard to the law governing the manna), the seventh day had been marked out as the weekly Sabbath. But the identifi­cation of the day was not the essence of the commandment. The moral substance of the commandment was the principle to keep one day out of seven to the Lord.

Hence Thomas Watson argues that The old seventh-day Sabbath, which was the Jewish Sabbath, is abrogated, and in the room of it the first day of the week, which is the Christian Sabbath, succeeds. The morality or substance of the fourth commandment does not lie in keep­ing the seventh day precisely, but keeping one day in seven is what God has appointed". Owen also argued that "although the command for the observation of a sabbath to the Lord, so far as it is moral, is put over into the rule of the new covenant … yet take the seventh day precisely as the seventh day, and it is an old testa­ment arbitrary institution.

So as we move from Old Testa­ment to New Testament, there is continuity and discontinuity, "renova­tion and innovation". Ceremonial elements change, while moral elements remain. There is still a weekly Sabbath. The seventh day is still holy to the Lord. Only that seventh day is now not the seventh day of the week, but the first, the truly Christian Sab­bath.

Puritan Descriptions←⤒🔗

The Puritans had biblical doctrines and fertile imaginations. Some of their descriptions of the Christian Sabbath are marvellous examples of the legitimate use of the imagination in Bible exegesis.

For example, the Sabbath was to them a weekly crowning of Christ. So Thomas Brooks: "It is the duty and glory of a Christian to rejoice in the Lord every day, but especially on the Lord's Day ... to rejoice in the Lord this day, and to rejoice in all the duties of the day ... this is to crown Christ, this is to lift up Christ". The crown is already on His royal head, yet in the sanctified observance of one day in the worship of God, His people show their loyalty to Him by crowning Him anew.

The Puritans also called their Sabbath a friend to religion.

So Thomas Watson: When the falling dust of the world has clogged the wheels of our affections, that they can scarce move towards God, the Sabbath comes, and oils the wheels of our affections and they move swiftly on. God has appointed the Sabbath for this end... The heart, which all the week was frozen, on the Sabbath melts with the word. The Sabbath is a friend to religion; it files off the rust of our graces...

Could there be a more important reason for Sabbath observ­ance than to realise it as a true friend of true religion? Lose the Sabbath, and you lose the best friend religion ever had.

Thirdly, Watson calls the Sabbath a badge of religion. "The primitive church had the Lord's Day ... in high estimation," he says. "It was a great badge of their religion to observe this day." There are circumstances where Sabbath observance becomes a great evangelistic tool, an outward, visible badge of our loyalty to Christ.

Another favourite description of the Sabbath is as the market-day of the soul. Matthew Henry described the Sabbath day as "a market-day, a harvest day for the soul". The Puritan Lewes Bayly expands on this idea: "The Sabbath day is God's market-day for the week's provision, wherein He will have us to come unto Him and buy of Him without silver or money, the Bread of Angels, and Water of Life, the Wine of the Sacraments, and Milk of the Word to feed our souls; tried gold to enrich our faith; precious eye-salve to heal our spir­itual blindness; and the white raiment of Christ's righteousness to cover our filthy nakedness". Those who make good use of the Lord's Day fill up their shopping basket with the best food for their week's provision.

Puritan Directives←⤒🔗

So how is the Sabbath "well spent" if it is to bring "a week of content"? The practice was the thing. Nega­tively, the Puritans suspended all secular work except insofar as works were necessary and showed mercy to those in need. Owen's twenty-three pages on "The Practical Observance of the Lord's Day", or Watson's scheme for Sabbath observance will repay close study. But, in general, three things are emphasised.

First, the Sabbath requires prepa­ration. Swinnock's principle was that "If thou wouldst thus leave thy heart with God on the Saturday night, thou shouldest find it with him in the Lord's Day morning". The simple logic of his argument is unassailable.

Second, there must be due attention to public worship. "The more ceremonies," said Richard Greenham, "the less truth". That was why the Puritans simplified worship and emphasised preaching, in order that we might dwell on the truth of the Word and allow it to fill our hearts and minds.

Third, the Sabbath was a family day in Puritan thought. A day for worshipping God together, for dis­cussing the sermon and for instruction in the things of God, a day for dwelling much on the things of primary importance. A festival day, for rejoicing in God's provision in Christ.

It is time to recover for ourselves a truly biblical, Puritan Sabbath.